Grace and mercy are yours through Jesus Christ who desires to heal us from our sicknesses, sorrows, and sins. Amen.

Mark 1:40-45 A man with leprosy came to him and begged him on his knees, "If you are willing, you can make me clean." ⁴¹ Filled with compassion, Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. "I am willing," he said. "Be clean!" ⁴² Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cured. ⁴³ Jesus sent him away at once with a strong warning: ⁴⁴ "See that you don't tell this to anyone. But go, show yourself to the priest and offer the sacrifices that Moses commanded for your cleansing, as a testimony to them." ⁴⁵ Instead he went out and began to talk freely, spreading the news. As a result, Jesus could no longer enter a town openly but stayed outside in lonely places. Yet the people still came to him from everywhere.

Lord Jesus, you know our human weaknesses and frailties. You know our needs and cares. We do not in any way deserve your help, Lord, but we truly need it. Therefore we come to you in this time of need. We humbly ask that if you are willing, you can make us clean. Touch us with your loving, outstretched hand, have compassion on us, and strengthen our weak faith, and work things out so that they serve our eternal good. Amen.

Over Christmas I was pretty sick. My throat was very sore. I was achy all over. I even lost my voice for two days (what good is a pastor if he can’t talk). I was popping cough drops like candy and taking cold medicine before I went to sleep. Now, I know that many women think that men are babies when they get sick. But I’m serious, I was close to death.

Do you think I received any sympathy? Do you think I received any love? Here I was on my deathbed and do you think I received any compassion? Instead I received, "For Pete’s sake, stop that sneezing! What are you trying to do, give me pneumonia?" "Maybe if you’d just gargle or something instead of sitting around barking like a seal all night." "I never knew how quiet it was around this house without you talking all the time, dear."

Thank goodness I know someone who is always there for me to show me love, to give me sympathy, to have compassion on me – Jesus. Surely if Jesus could show compassion to a social outcast like a leper, then he can show love to someone like me.

One day Jesus was traveling around Galilee with his disciples when a leper, someone who was truly sick called out to him. The lepers were the outcasts, the pariahs, the untouchables of society. No one else wanted anything to do with them. Yet, we see this morning that our Jesus is compassionate. No doctor could do anything to cure this man, and so Jesus demonstrates his compassion in his healing. No one wanted to be within 50 yards of this man, and yet Jesus demonstrates his compassion in his touch.

Leprosy in its advanced stages is not a pretty sight. Lumps in a leper’s skin swell and fester. And from those festering open sores come a foul-smelling odor. Nerve deterioration often results in loss of fingers and toes, even ears and noses – the fleshy parts of the body. All of the hair falls off around the eyes, leaving the leper with a perpetual stare. Various parts of the body can swell so much that the leper looks malformed.

Leprosy was a socially isolating disease. Leprosy was like the plague in the 1200s or Small Pox in the 1700s or AIDS in the 20^th century. It frightened people. They knew they couldn’t cure it. They didn’t want to catch it. So they certainly didn’t want to be around anyone who had it.

The lepers had to live outside of town in leper colonies. They had to stay away from coming into contact with other people. Whenever a leper would dare come out in the open he had to cry, "Unclean! Unclean!" to warn people to keep away because they thought leprosy was contagious and didn’t want to be maimed and disfigured.

Not only did these wretched, poor people have to endure the trials of an incurable affliction, they also were isolated from society and kept from the community of faith. The horror of disease, a lifestyle of loneliness, isolation and hopelessness, where could they find hope?

Mark tells us, "A man with leprosy came to him and begged him on his knees, ‘If you are willing, you can make me clean.’" This poor, disfigured man fell to his knees in worship of Jesus. This was a strong testimony by the leprous man that he believed Jesus was the almighty Son of God. And since he was the Son of God, the man knew that Jesus had to power to cleanse him of his disease if he chose to do so. This man had a strong faith.

He also had humility. He humbly resigned himself to the will of the one who was infinitely wiser than himself. "If you are willing, you can make me clean." He believed that Jesus could make him well again, but he also seemed willing to accept his fate if Jesus chose not to heal him. Perhaps he recognized that God may have a purpose for his illness that was beyond his understanding.

There were others that God did not heal because of a greater purpose. Naaman wasn’t healed until he came to Elisha for help, so that Naaman wasn’t just cleansed of the disease of his skin, but also cleansed of the disease of his sin. Lazarus became ill, and Jesus let him die. Jesus said that it was for God’s glory. Later he told his disciples that it was for their benefit that Lazarus died of his illness so that they could see Jesus raise him from the dead again. The apostle Paul was never healed of his "thorn in the flesh." God gave him that thorn in order to keep Paul from becoming conceited. Instead of removing the thorn, God added more grace to Paul so that he could deal with his suffering.

The point is, God is the all-knowing, almighty Lord. He gets to decide who is healed and who is not, who lives and who dies, who is exalted and who is humbled. And Jesus is acting on the Father’s behalf. It may be for my good that I am sick and take some time to rest. It may be that Jesus wants to strengthen your faith by allowing you to have cancer, or to learn to pray more if you have diabetes, or look to God for love if your marriage is loveless. I know someone who worked in the Pentagon whose life may have been spared by God because God let him have high blood pressure. Todd was in the emergency room all Monday night, so was sleeping in Tuesday morning, September 11^th, 2001 when the plane crashed into the Pentagon. If God is willing, he can heal us, but sometimes it is for our own good that we have sorrows, sicknesses, and sadness.

We are told that Jesus was "filled with compassion." He answered the leper’s cry for mercy by answering, "I am willing. Be clean."

You see, no one ever cared for us like Jesus! Jesus knows and cares about us. He knows if we are healthy or sick. He knows if we are struggling or financially set. He knows what is inside of us. He knows how we think. He knows what we are. He knows when we are telling the truth and when we are lying. He knows, despite all of our false pretenses, who we are and what we are really like. Despite all that, he still loves us. He still has compassion on us.

In Jesus’ day, leprosy was considered to be God’s scourge upon the sinner. If you contracted leprosy, you must have done something horrible to really tick off God that he would punish you in this way. All of us have contracted the leprosy of sin. We may look pretty good and smell fine, but our minds are infected with sin, our hearts have been infiltrated by sin, and our eyes can’t seem to shy away from sin. Our sins are as real as the festering sores on the leper’s skin.

The gracious mystery is that Jesus is compassionate towards us – us, people who have rebelled against him, rejected his love, and even crucified him with our sins. Still, instead of speaking words of condemnation, he speaks words of love and forgiveness: "For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more." (Hebrews 8:12) "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us (cleanse us) from all unrighteousness." (1 John 1:9) "I will cleanse them from all the sin they have committed against me and will forgive all their sins of rebellion against me." (Jeremiah 33:8)

Jesus certainly is compassionate. He has the power to heal us from our illnesses and diseases, and he has certainly cleansed us from our sins and wickedness.

Filled with compassion, Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. So what? Why does Mark mention this touch? Knowing the love and compassion of Jesus, I can easily understand him healing the man of his leprosy. But why did Jesus reach out and have to touch him? Jesus had the power to just say the word and the man would have been healed. He had that power! Jesus didn’t have to touch him. But he deliberately reached out and touched the leper!

Remember, according to the law, when Jesus touched him Jesus became unclean, too. But Jesus went ahead and did it anyway. Why? I think it was because Jesus was giving him a gift he would never forget. There is something very special about human touch that communicates friendship and concern, and even love – a handshake, a hug, or a kiss on the cheek. No one else would even come close to a leper. So when Jesus touched him, that must have been a very emotional and moving moment the leper would remember forever.

Have you felt Jesus touch you? You know he does, don’t you? He touches you gently to wake you up in the morning. He wipes your tears of sorrow away. He puts his hand around your heart and eases your pain. He holds your hand when you are afraid. And he gently pushes you along when he sees danger coming your way. We have no way of telling how many times and what kind of ways Jesus gently touches us on a daily basis. We simply know that he does.

Jesus especially touched us when he died on Calvary’s cross. Our sin touched him and his holiness touched us. He not only says to us, "Today you will be with me in paradise," but he allowed our sin to touch him and kill him, in order to prove his point. We really will be with Jesus in paradise. Jesus’ holiness and health flowed into the leper when he touched him. This same exchange took place so long ago in our baptism and it happens every time we exchange our sin for Christ’s forgiveness in the Lord’s Supper.

I think that too often we feel alone. But there is always someone ready to take our hand. There is a beautiful story of an overworked nurse who escorted a tired, young man to her patient’s bedside. Leaning over and speaking loudly to the elderly patient, she said, "Your son is here." With great effort, the man’s unfocussed eyes opened, then flickered shut again. The young man squeezed the aged hand in his and sat beside the bed. Throughout the night he sat there, holding the old man’s hand and whispering words of comfort.

By morning’s light, the patient had died. In moments, hospital staff swarmed into the room to turn off machines and remove needles. The nurse stepped over to the young man’s side and began to offer sympathy, but he interrupted her. "Who was that man?" he asked. The startled nurse replied, "I thought he was your father!" "No, he was not my father", he answered. "I never saw him before in my life." "Then, why didn’t you say something when I took you to him?" "I realized he needed his son and his son wasn’t here", the man explained. "And since he was too sick to recognize that I was not his son, I knew he needed me."

Mother Teresa used to remind us that nobody should have to die alone. Likewise, nobody should have to grieve alone or cry alone either. Or laugh alone or celebrate alone. We are made to travel life’s journey hand in hand. Jesus is the one who will always be there for us. When we are alone or afraid; whether we are nerdy and geeky; whether we are full of cancer or disease; we know that Jesus will always be there for us, even when no one else is. He knows that we need him. Our Jesus is compassionate. He is compassionate in his healing. He is especially compassionate in his touch. That touch that cleanses leprosy, conveys love, and brings eternal life. Amen.

And now may Jesus, our compassionate Savior, grant you healing and forgiveness. Amen.